Online content providers employ one or more servers to distribute content over the Internet to an end user operating a client device. The servers may be networked together to more efficiently provide content to the end user. The content to be distributed may include a document or resource of information suitable for the World Wide Web and accessible through a web browser, a multimedia file for playback or display on the client device of the end user, or any other type of electronic information. As examples, the content may be a web page, a video file, an audio file, or any other type of electronic media.
The content distributor may use a content-distribution network to distribute content to end users. Generally, a content-distribution network is a system of computers that are networked together across the Internet and cooperate for distributing content.
In configuring the content-distribution network, the content for distribution may reside on one or more servers. The content distributor may use one or more proxy servers for accepting incoming connections from the end users and/or for distributing or servicing incoming connections. However, for a single proxy server, or even multiple proxy servers, managing hundreds of thousands of incoming connections is a challenging task. This is especially true for proxy servers that are required to service secure connections, such as Secure Socket Layer (“SSL”) connections, between clients and content servers.